Well, after the national attention brought on by their raffle of an AR-15 in "honor" of Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln, the county GOP has backpedaled. Sort of.

Of course, they did the cowardly thing -- apologizing "if people were hurt". The old we-did-nothing-wrong, but sorry-if-you-were-offended thing. They added a wrinkle too, blaming Democrats for everyone "misunderstanding" what they meant.

We apologize if people were hurt by the message being marred by insufficient wording and/or cynical misinterpretations by those who disagree with us politically.

What's interesting here is how it took 'em a week. Somewhere out there, someone leaned on 'em. Probably one of the statewide candidates, or a national party committee. Maybe even Congressman Greg Walden.

The great political issue today is whether or not the American people of all creeds and races will live free or live as slaves - slaves to their own overreaching government. 50 years ago, Martin Luther King's great speech was an appeal for freedom for African Americans. Today, those same words he spoke 50 years ago are an appeal for freedom for all Americans.

And they expect anyone to take them seriously? Even the right-wing Oregonian editorial board has had enough:

Slavery? Really? At this point, it’s fair to ask whether the Multnomah GOP’s problem is its inability to communicate clearly or the message it’s trying to communicate.

Look, guys. It's not that hard. When you do something dumb, apologize for your behavior - not other peoples' reactions to it. And never, ever bring up Nazis or slavery as a political argument. When you do, you automatically lose.

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Protect our seniors and END the government's ability to garnish Social Security benefits.

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